Red and Gold
by light soceress
Summary: As the Chinese New Year approaches, Marinette has a few things she needed to get done; clean the house, help her parents make traditional Chinese foods, and finish her super secret project. She manages to get everything done, and now she is excitedly waiting to share a bit of her mother's culture with her friends. little one shot in celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year


"Tikki, do you think this myth on cleaning the house before New Year actually brings good luck to the family?'

"Why are you so worry about luck, Marinette? You are Lady Luck herself," the red kwami giggled.

"Tikki, I'm so clumsy and unlucky in my normal life, it wouldn't hurt."

"Oh Marinette, no one can be lucky all the time."

"I know, but it would be nice not to trip over my feet," Marinette moaned.

"You mean not tripping in front of Adrien."

"Ah, Tikki don't remind me. He probably thinks i'm a major klutz and spaz!"

"Come on, Marinette, didn't you say you wanted to get all the cleaning and shopping for New Years out of the way soon so you can work on your project?. You won't get to that if you don't stop worrying about it." The girl sighed and went back to reorganizing her bedroom.

Despite not being able to speak Mandarin, the Chinese New Year was always an exciting time. It was as hectic as it was fun. Her mother always pulled out all the stops for it. The bakery would always featured many chinese baked good with little information cards for customers who were curious. They would also decorate the bakery with red for good luck. Her favorite was the garland of red lanterns that would hang above the cash register. They also put up a tiny Mandarin orange tree in the corner display with little red money envelope hanging from the branches. Then the whole family would always take one day off in the whole month long celebration to go down to Quartier Chinois to watch the yearly procession and then spend the rest of the time visiting her mother's family who lived in Paris. Where they would be a lot of good food and she would get _**hóngbāo**_ , which meant she could get a whole bunch of new fabrics for her different projects!

But first they would have to do all the preparation for it, and that was her least favorite part. She needed to help her parents finish cleaning the house and the bakery, and then stop by the market in Belleville to buy all the ingredients her parents needed for the baked goods. And she still hadn't finished her project that she wanted to debut for New Years. Perhaps she could ask Alya to help her with the shopping. It would make the time pass by quicker. She brought out her phone and quickly texted her friend, before going back to cleaning her room.

"What is with all this stuff" Alya asked as she helped Marinette carry several bags of groceries on to the Metro.

"The patisserie always makes Chinese bake good for the Lunar New Year celebration, most of that stuff we order in bulk, but there are some specific stuff that Mamman makes just for friends and family. This is what all this stuff is for. Thanks for helping, Alya! I would have to make two trips if you weren't helping." Marinette slouched down into her seat happy to set down her heavy bag.

"Am I included in this?" Alya flopped down next to her friend, playfully jostling her shoulder

"Of course! Can't do New Years without my bestie! Mamma and Papa are always happy for me to invite my friends over. Usually we just have Mamma's family, and Kim's family"

"Kim? Kim as in Kim in our class Kim?" Alya couldn't help but ask. Kim and Marinette never seemed very close.

"Yeah, our moms are friends. So we kind of grew up together. He decided somewhere down the line that girls had cooties so we kind of stop hanging out outside of when our families meetup."

"Kim isn't Chinese right?"

"No, both his parents are Vietnamese. They came to Paris around the same time as my mom did. Kim's mom and Mamma met because they went to same French language school."

"Ah, they celebrate Chinese New Year too?"

"Kind of? I guess, they celebrate Vietnamese Lunar New Year that falls on the same day. I think the traditions are pretty similar to Chinese traditions. We usually visit to exchange new year greetings and have tea."

"Why haven't I heard about this before?"

Marinette shrugged, "There was never any reason to bring it up. You can't expect me to tell you all my secrets, bff or not."

"I'm personally hurt, I've told you every single secret I had."

Marinette raised an eyebrow at her in disbelief.

"Ok, ok. I kid! Though I need to remember to bring you over during one of our holidays, my mom makes the best food then!"

"Deal! Come on, let's get these back quickly. I want to show you my latest design!"

"Did you bring the buns ?" Kim asked as soon as she enter class with a box in her hand.

"Of course ! When have I forgotten?!"

"Just checking, cause we all know you can be spacey."

"Hmph, if you are going to be that way, I guess I will give these all out to everyone but you."

"So cruel, Dupain-Cheng. I thought we were bffs."

"When you decided that girls had cooties," She deadpanned.

"Right, glad you have made a full recovery," he replied solemnly.

"I-" She started before the door open behind her and Chloe shoved past her causing her to lose her balance and drop the box.

Only to be save by someone catching the box right before it hit the floor.

"Marinette are you ok?" Adrien asked looking down at her.

"I-" How embarrassing she fell in front of him again!

"Nice catch, Agreste! You saved the sweets!" Kim took the box away from the blond, who turned to offer a hand to her.

"Thank you, Adrien" she squeaked as he help pull her off the floor.

"Are you ok?"

"Me- yes - fine"

He laughed at her response before turning towards Kim who was still holding the box.

"What's in the box?"

"Only the best Têt sweets ever!"

"Têt?"

"Têt, Lunar New Years, or Chinese New Years. Marinette's parents make the best sweet buns and egg tarts for the New Years!"

"Oh please! Like anyone cares about that. New Years already happen!" Chloe snidely interrupted.

"For the Gregorian calendar. The Lunar Calendar has a different New Years, Chloe. Don't be just a brat that not everyone follows your traditions," Kim retorted.

"Kim's right. We are just trying to share our parents' culture. If you don't want to participate then don't and leave the people who want to alone." Marinette sent a glare at the blond.

"Does your family do anything for Chinese New Years, Marinette? My Mandarin tutor usually brings some New Years sweets during this time." Adrien turned towards her.

She flushed red when she saw he was asking for her.

"Our families go down to Quartier de Chinoise to watch the Dragon dances!" Kim answered for her slugging an arm around her shoulder before sending her a sly glance. "Wanna come Agreste?"

"Oooh that sounds like fun. Can we come too?" Rose asked sliding into the conversation. That was when Marinette realized the rest of the class were all watching them.

"What about the rest of us, we want to go too," Alix called out. And a chorus of agreement went around the class.

"Guys, it's not exclusive. Anyone can come. We can make it a class outing, everybody is welcomed."

Wolf whistles greeted Marinette when she walked to her group of friends.

"Looking good girl!" She flushed with pride at Alya's cheer.

"Not bad, Dupain-Cheng" Kim held his fist up for a fist bump.

"Thank your mom, she was the one that found me that pattern"

"Wow cherie, it looks amazing. Are those… ladybug?" Alya asked studying the cloth before turning and giving her friend a wide grin.

"Yes, you know to bring me good luck," Mari answered sheepishly. Her friend laugh fondly at her.

"Maybe Ladybug's good luck will rub off on you, and you will be early to class for once"

"Hey! I have been early before!"

"One time out of how many times have you been late?"

Marinette stuck her tongue out in response, while everyone else laughed.

"It's so pretty, Marinette, I like all the ladybug accents," Rose complemented as the rest of the group form a circle around Marinette to "Ooh" and "Aah" at her red and gold ensembled.

"Yeah, any particular reason for this outfit," Mylene asked.

"So one of the traditions for the Chinese New Year is to wear new clothes and wear red. Ever since I learn to sew I have been making clothes for the new years. Last year I finally was able to sew myself a qipao. This year, I decided to try something different. Kim's mom asked me to repair a small ao dai for her niece, and I was really interested in the pattern. She gave me the pattern, and with a little research voilá!" She gestured her red long tunic and gold pants.

"It's the traditional Vietnamese long tunic, a lot of Vietnamese people wear it for New Years. Did you showed it to my parents?"

"Yeah, I ran into them when I came in with my parents. I even got my red envelopes from them." She held up a bright red envelope with gold chinese characters.

"Ah man, you already got yours. My parents haven't even given me mine yet!"

"What are those?" Alya asked.

"Lì xì."

"Hóngbāo" Kim and Marinette responded at the same time.

"They are money envelope that adults give to kids for good luck. Because our parents are friends I sometimes get one from Kim's parents and sometimes my parents give Kim one too." Marinette further explained. "Though don't your parents make you wish them a happy New Years in Vietnamese before they give you your envelope?"

"Yeah, you are so lucky that your mom doesn't make you learn Mandarin. My parents are afraid I will forget to speak Viet if they don't make me practice it."

"At least you can speak it, I only know a few broken phrases Wenzhounese and nothing in Mandarin."

"But they make me say this to all my relatives. It would be so much faster if I just say that in French. Though we all know who you could ask for Mandarin lessons." He smirked as he said the last sentence, causing her cheeks to flush hot with embarrassment while the rest of their friends laugh.

"Speaking of sunshine boy where is he?" Alya interrupted and looked at Nino.

The DJ shrugged, "Said he might run late cause his shoot ran longer than expected."

"There he is." Rose pointed out Adrien running towards them.

"Sorry I'm late," he panted out when he reached them.

"Like a match made in heaven." Alya slyly looked at Marinette, causing the other girl to flush red again making the people around them to laugh.

"You haven't missed much, just Marinette showing off her ao dai. What do you think?" Kim smirked at the blond, who turned to the girl mentioned.

The blond turned towards her, and opened his mouth to greet the girl but once he got a better look at her all his words failed. He knew his friend was pretty, but he didn't realize how pretty until this moment. She was cute in pink, but she looked even more amazing in red.

"Bro, you're going to catch flies," Nino teased, the blond flushed red almost as red as Marinette when he realized he had been staring at the girl with his mouth hung open and quickly shut it.

'Y-yeah, it looks great! Red is a good color on you," he manage to spit out.

Marinette didn't know what hit her, but she got a burst of courage from the boy's flustered look. She struck a pose, "As great as Ladybug?" When she realize what she did and flushed even more red and pulled a cackling Alya away with her. Leaving the poor fluster boy behind with an amused Nino and cackling Kim.


End file.
